Crux opens pledges to fund a Cromwell/Wānaka journalist

It’s a time of crisis for journalism all over the world. But in New Zealand things are much worse than elsewhere because of the withdrawal of all Government support, our small size and the amplified effect of a collapse on advertising revenue in such a small economy.

Robust local journalism is the most fragile of all. This market has always been vulnerable to the influence of local councils and big businesses due to their ability to provide most of the funding for local news platforms. It’s very true that you can’t bite the hand that feeds you.

Crux has been successful since 2018 in establishing the need, and appetite, for strong independent local journalism - but the financial model has been challenging, especially since the end of the Public Interest Journalism Fund in 2024.

We had to take the Crux platform into hibernation in November 2024 but then we were fortunate in receiving reader subscriptions via Substack. Now we have a relatively stable presence in Queenstown with platform costs more or less covered, including the vital legal resources that our work (sadly) requires.

But the Crux mission was always to cover three towns - Queenstown, Wānaka and Cromwell. Each quite different - but sharing common opportunities and challenges from dramatic growth, outstanding landscapes and the potential for the highest possible quality of life.

Now we’d like to hire a second journalist, or two part time journalists, to provide quality, robust coverage of Cromwell and Wānaka.

Journalists are the same as everyone else - they have families, mortgages, bills to pay and the need to know that they have some security of income. They are also an endangered species with less than 1,000 journalists left in the whole country. More will disappear this year.

So we need to secure sufficient funds to pay for the high calibre of journalist needed to provide the required Crux standard of content. It’s a tough gig - and a Crux story can often taken ten times longer to publish than a standard media release based piece. There’s more research, more legal risk and often more push back from some comms/PR people who are paid to sell the interests of a particular organisation.

We are doing this via Substack and via a pledge system. We need enough pledges to hire the best person or people. No cash now - but a pledge to support us if we get to a minimum target. We won’t call on your pledge unless we reach a viable target.

Specifically we need at least 250 paid subscribers from each town - 500 paid subscriptions in total as a minimum. This will cover pay and local travel costs. The subscriptions are $20 a month, $200 a year or $350 for a founding subscriber who can afford to pay a little extra. We can also accept one off donations to help us get to our total faster.

We may act on pledges below our target if we reach enough support for a suitably qualified freelance/part time journalist who can supply the necessary level of coverage.

When we turn pledges into subscriptions those subscriptions wil give access to all Queenstown, Wānaka and Cromwell stories, including all paid content published since mid 2024. Existing Cromwell and Wānaka subscribers won’t need to to anything - except persuade people in their network to join them!

The Crux Facebook page and website will continue to operate for “general” free news - but the focus will increasingly be on Substack email based, long form content and providing unparalleled value for money to our paid subscribers.

But at this stage - pay nothing. Just pledge your support and lets see if we can start to widen our coverage back to the original three towns - especially in a local election year when our detailed coverage is more important than ever.

Don’t forget. In the current environment all news media platforms are at risk, especially those that don’t adapt to a new digital audience environment. News deserts already exist around the world. Even in Australia there are now over 30 local councils with no local media coverage whatsoever.

Our answer - low operating costs, high editorial quality, the latest digital publishing technology and the best local news without fear or favour.

We put the community first - and always will.